Join Amberly Stitzel and Scott Million as they discuss the ways that Social Media Marketing can enhance Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click Marketing results.

 LFI University - LeapCast 05.12.08 - Integrating Social Media Marketing with Search Engine Marketing: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Join Michael Wunsch and Scott Million as they discuss Social Media Marketing and where it fits in a complete interactive marketing strategy.

 LeapCast - LFI Tips and Trends: 04.24.08 - Where SMM Fits: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Join Katina French and Scott Million as they discuss Social Media 101 and changes to the Social Media Landscape.

 LeapCast - LFI University: 04.17.08 - The Social Media Landscape: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Join Amberly Stitzel and Michael Wunsch as they discuss Interactive Marketing considerations for online contests.

 Mark: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It seems as though every week there is a new “hottest, fastest growing” channel for reaching customers.  Preroll for online video is exploding.  Mobile and short-code marketing is gaining steam fast.  Widgets and advergaming are two more advertising outlets that, for all intents and purposes, didn’t exist a few short years ago, but which are now getting line items on company advertising budgets. 

So which of these up-and-comers is the real “best channel” for a company’s advertising dollars?  Any business that is serious about reaching the ever-more-elusive target audience should probably be investigating and testing a mix of different channels.  The more important question is, “Has our brand message been developed to engage our target audience regardless of the channel it reaches them via?” 

As more consumers become active in remixing and redistributing corporate communications online through blogging, social networks, and other channels, it becomes crucial to brand the content itself.  A business cannot completely control what users decide to do with their messaging, content and other brand assets online.  What we can control is the quality of the original content. 

Similarly, a well-crafted brand message should work equally well, with minimal changes, across multiple channels or media.  While the delivery and execution of the message can (and should!) be honed to make the most of the particular media channel selected, the message itself should always remain consistent and on-brand. 

This week I’ve been working on updating our communications plan, confronting the eternal question of lead generation – how to create a message that appeals to as many as possible without losing the individuality of the message.

While I’ll probably never be accused of leading a perfectly balanced life, I do believe that most things work out best when a balance is found between the extremes.  While I would love to deliver a message that is entirely personalized to every recipient, such messaging would make it impossible to reach enough people to provide benefit.  At the same time a generic message, while providing a much greater reach, will likely fall on deaf ears 99.9% of the time.

We’ve all encountered both extremes in communications – from the bland generic mass mailings sent to every mailbox in the country to the direct sales call from someone that seems to know my every move from the last two years. 

The good news is that technology is rapidly advancing the ability to find the balance by delivering personalized, targeted messages to a broad audience of people.  While this may not be the middle path to enlightenment, it does provide some exciting opportunities for creating and delivering your message.